DUBAI: Josh Hazlewood made the cut when Australia submitted their final 15-man squad for next week’s World Test Championship (WTC) final despite recent injury concerns, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced.

The paceman cut short his Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign earlier this month after reporting “minor side soreness” but had been declared fit by Cricket Australia for the winner-takes-all test at The Oval in London starting on June 7.

The 32-year-old joins captain Pat Cummins, Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc as the specialist fast bowlers in the squad with all-rounder Mitch Marsh and batter Matthew Renshaw, who were included in the original party, missing out.

India confirmed the 15 players they announced three weeks ago after wicket-keeper batsman KL Rahul withdrew with a right leg injury and was replaced by the uncapped Ishan Kishan.

Uncapped opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was named alongside Mukesh Kumar and Suryakumar Yadav as standby players for India after a strong IPL campaign.

Standby players can now replace an injured player in the squad only with the approval of the ICC technical committee.

After the final, in which both sides will be seeking a first title, Australia go straight into the Ashes series against England with the first Test starting at Edgbaston on June 16.

Squads:

AUSTRALIA: Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

INDIA: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K.S. Bharat, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan.-

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2023